The medical model in mental health : an explanation and evaluation

1. Explanation of basic concepts of medical terminology -- 2. The role of diagnosis in medical practice and society -- 3. The nature of diagnostic constructs -- 4. The clinical picture, creating diagnostic constructs, and causation -- 5. Multidisciplinary working, evidence, treatment, and decision-​making in medicine -- 6. Criticism of psychiatric diagnosis -- 7. Criticism of psychiatric treatment -- 8. Reliability of diagnosis -- 9. Spectrums of health -- 10. Variability of clinical picture -- 11. Spectrums of conditions -- 12. Biological factors and health -- 13. Social factors and health -- 14. Clinical utility of diagnosis -- 15. Treatments in psychiatry compared to general medicine -- 16. Final conclusions -- References -- Index.

Many published books that comment on the medical model have been written by doctors, who assume that readers have the same knowledge of medicine, or by those who have attempted to discredit and attack the medical practice. Both types of book have tended to present diagnostic categories inmedicine as universally scientifically valid examples of clear-cut diseases easily distinguished from each other and from health; with a fixed prognosis; and with a well-understood aetiology leading to disease-reversing treatments. These are contrasted with psychiatric diagnoses and treatments,which are described as unclear and inadequate in comparison.The Medical Model in Mental Health: An Explanation and Evaluation explores the overlap between the usefulness of diagnostic constructs (which enable prognosis and treatment decisions) and the therapeutic effectiveness of psychiatry compared with general medicine. The book explains the medical modeland how it applies in mental health, assuming little knowledge or experience of medicine, and defends psychiatry as a medical practice.